Zhan Long
chapter-357

“Ka Cha…..”

One of the [Hero’s Mound: First Division] Berserkers dropped his battle axe and reached down to pick it up, saying blankly, “Did we really just lose like that? Didn’t those dumbasses from [Flying Dragon] say they would help us? Where the f*ck are they?”

On the side, an Archer smiled coldly and said, “[Flying Dragon]? You were hoping for a trash guild like them to help us? Hmph, they’re out a thousand yards, dragged down by [Blood Contract] and Han Bei Song. They can’t even save themselves….”

The Berserker gritted his teeth, “Honestly, why are we provoking [Zhan Long] in the first place? I still can’t figure out what’s so important about Firestone Canyon.”

The Archer pointed out, “Nothing really, it’s for the sake of protecting our ally [Mass Burial]….

The Berserker balled a fist, his eyes filled with rage, “[Mass Burial]?! Those motherf*ckers? Three days ago, one of [Mass Burial]’s flag bearers met with one of our female Healers and took her into his guild. He then had her blacklist all of her friends. Does that kind of a guild even count as an ally? Motherf*cker, if I knew that we were helping [Mass Burial] deal with [Zhan Long] in the first place, I wouldn’t have participated at all!”

The Archer was astonished, “Dumbass, be quiet. If Windy Walker heard you he’d definitely keep on killing you till you hit level 0!”

The Berserker gave out a cold laugh and raised his battle axe. He declared loudly, “Guild Master Xiao Yao Zi Zai, I ain’t fighting this battle any longer. Can I leave?”

From a distance, I nodded, “Go back to the city then. Nobody will block your path!”

“Got it!”

After a flash of light, the first person from [Hero’s Mound: First Division] left, there was a second, and then a third. Soon, more followed, and in no time at all more than half the guild had left the scene, leaving around only 700 total to fend for themselves. Under the pursuit of Old K and Li Mu, this lonely few would only serve to give us equipment.

……

Another half-hour had passed, and the main [Zhan Long] guild, with its First division, had pressured nearly 700 members of [Hero’s Mound] to leave. The rest all became corpses that littered the ground of the Firestone Canyon.

Li Mu brought over a thousand of Wang Jian’s men to the forest to reinforce [Blood Contract]’s offence, only to have the fight end 30 minutes later. Five thousand of [Flying Dragon]’s men were utterly defeated. Even Drunken Spear was forced to retreat into the forest after his health had reached critical levels.

Raising my Emperor Qin’s Sword, I stepped into the silver forest. My sword had already maxed out at 50 stacks of [Kill for Blood] long before the ground was covered with corpses. Looking back I saw the bodies of [Flying Dragon] strewn everywhere: more than 3500 total. All of them were waiting to revive, unfortunately for them [Blood Contract] gave no indication that they’d show mercy.

“Pei!”

After spitting on the corpses of [Flying Dragon], Han Bei Song growled, “To think that [Flying Dragon] would have a day like this. Motherf*cker has killed so many of [Blood Contract]’s members. There were even many times when we’ve had hundred men teams grinding events that have failed because of [Flying Dragon]. It got even worse afterwards. They ended up directly attacking and PKing us. Bastards! This time, I, Han Bei Song, will sit here for three days and three nights to have my revenge!”

I stepped onto a green moss covered stone and looked into the distance map and said, “Guard these bodies for three days? Isn’t that a bit too much, [Blood Contract] only has so many people? If you guys just guard [Flying Dragon] you might piss off Soaring Dragon. If the 20,000 players from [Flying Dragon] all come at once, heh heh, [Blood Contract] might have to go back empty handed…..”

Han Bei Song shot a glance at me, then broke into a smile, “No problem. We still have allies like [Zhan Long]. Besides, I’ve become friends with the Guild Masters of [Misty Palace], [Winds of Battle], and [Ruined Bones] recently and we’ve talked about making an alliance. Once these three guilds merge, then we’ll easily have more than 10,000 members. Heh heh, then we’ll be able to make our stand in Ba Huang City. Soon we’ll become of equal standing with the other big guilds like [Vanguard], [Prague], and [Flying Dragon]!”

“Oh?” I was puzzled, “[Misty Palace], [Winds of Battle], and [Ruined Bones] want to merge?”

“Yea!” Han Bei Song continued, “It’s something I heard from Who’s Blue recently.”

Under the maple tree, Who’s Blue carried a Mage staff, leaning it against the tree to rest and nodded, “Yea, I heard Misty Clouds bring it up. He said that, separated, they were weak but together, they would be strong, and so [Misty Palace], [Winds of Battle], and [Ruined Bones] were going to merge. On top of that, I’ve also heard that Fighting in Blood, Sword Reborn and Misty Clouds have been meeting offline and have settled on a treaty. This new guild would be pretty united, all that’s missing right now is something to catalyze their creation….”

TL Note: an idiom referring to the fact that they’ll make their mark on the world and prove that they’re the top boss.

I couldn’t help but smile, “Oh? If they already decided to merge, why do they need a catalyst?”

Who’s Blue replied, “The three big guilds will merge into one and become a super guild. They need an extremely strong person to become their Guild Master. On top of that, this person needs to have a sound reputation that everyone knows, but after the recent Rise of the Heroes tournament, Misty Clouds had the highest achievement, and even he was only one of the top 32 players. His CBN ranking is only 87th, and so….. They need to wait for the right moment. Once someone from within the three big guilds suddenly has an exponential increase in battle potential, then, they can merge!”

I nodded and said, “Not bad, they’ve thought over this thoroughly. If they don’t have someone to assert absolute dominance become the Guild Master, then this new guild will definitely suffer a lot of slander. Besides, Ba Huang City has too many large-scale guilds. Firestone Canyon, Ba Huang Forest has PK’s every day. If they don’t have a fist that’s strong enough, they’ll never be able to take hold of a piece of land long enough to survive.”

Who’s Blue slyly smiled and said, “Mhm, that’s very true.”

Han Bei Song optimistically said, “Uh…. I just got Misty Clouds message. He says he wants to borrow both of our Healers, Who’s Blue and Not Red Yet…. for a quest….”

“Oh? What level quest?” I asked, puzzled.

“An SSS tier quest…..” Han Bei Song broke into a grin, “Misty Clouds’ luck isn’t bad, to actually get an SSS tier main quest. Heh heh, on top of that it’s a large-scale quest and has a 50 person limit, so he came to us to borrow some help. Rent fee……1000G per person. Besides, assuming we do complete the quest, we might get even more compensation…..”

“They only need two Healers?” I asked.

Han Bei Song slapped his forehead and smiled, “Yea I know right. They don’t care for a warrior type player like me. SSS tier quest isn’t like playing house. I feel like they’ll definitely borrow some people from [Zhan Long] as well. Hehe, Guild Master Xiao Yao, why don’t you just wait and collect the fees…..”

“Yea, alright….”

……

Once I said that, I suddenly got a message requesting help from Misty Clouds——

“Guild Master Zi Zai, I have something to discuss….”

“Go for it!” I frankly said.

Misty Clouds laughed out and said, “Then I won’t beat around the bush. I just accepted a quest. It’s a quest from the Ba Huang City Duke Luo Lei, where I must lead 1000 of Ba Huang City’s NPC soldiers to escort Ba Huang City’s princess to a marriage in Jiu Li City. This is a government arranged marriage, and the quest is especially cruel. While we’re on the road, there’ll be a large amount of bandits that will thirst for this imperial princess. Once this princess is kidnapped, then everyone who takes on this quest will lose 5 levels and 10 points of charm. So, I plan to invite a few truly strong players to help in this quest. [Zhan Long] has a lot of experts and I hope to borrow 7 people to help boost our strength in this quest…..”

I nodded and went straight to the point, “Misty Clouds, just give me the list of names. I’ll tell you what I think of it, and if I don’t have any problems with it then I’ll just lend them to you.”

“Alright!”

Misty Clouds happily said, “I need two main tanks to block the monsters. Knights are the best so I want Strawberry Matcha and One Second Warrior. Also, I need long-ranged control, so I need Dancing Forest. On top of that, I need three Assassins to control the rhythm of the BOSS skills, and so I want Yue Qing Qian, Yue Wei Liang, and Wolf. Lastly, I need a long range DPS, so Thousand Suns over Snowy Lands should work. Just these 7 people. As for Guild Master Zi Zai, you are [Zhan Long]’s Guild Master, so I don’t dare ask for you. If the quest actually does fail and I make you lose 5 levels, then I wouldn’t be able to handle that responsibility. He he, so I just want these 7 people. Everyone’s commission would be 2000G. If you would just tell them, that any equipment the BOSS drops would be decided based on roll. I, Misty Cloud, am not Jian Feng Han, and I hope that they would believe in my reputation!”

I pondered for a bit and finally said, “Misty, I think you should bring in a few more Healers or else you wouldn’t be able to take the damage. You would need at least 10 or more Healers. You can freely use our miss Matcha, since her attack is extremely high, as well as her health and defense. As long as she doesn’t die, the BOSS is basically doomed to die and so you must protect her!”

“Alright, I got it. Can you tell them that then? Tonight at 8 o’clock sharp, the event will begin.”

“Alright, I’ll let you know their response!”

“Thanks!”

……

And thus, I invited Matcha, Dancing Forest and the other 7 people into a private team and briefly told them about Misty Cloud’s quest——

Wolf said, “Brother Xiao Yao, I don’t think this was very rational. Why is it that even I was invited, and yet Misty Clouds didn’t invite you to participate in this quest? Logically speaking, Brother Xiao Yao’s stamina is perfect for being the main tank. On top of that, you have a support like the Flaming Tiger God. Why would they want me to enter the quest and not you? There’s a 50 person limit and yet there’s no you…..”

Qing Qian pouted, “That’s right, we’ll only be invincible with Brother Xiao Yao….”

One Second Hero smiled, “Hehe”

Matcha asked, “One Second Hero, why are you smiling?”

One Second Hero made a fist and said, “Maybe your gaming experience is higher than mine, but you don’t have as much people experience as me. Think about it this way, Misty Clouds and Sword Reborn are both warrior type players. They want to be the main close-combat DPS player. If Guild Master Xiao Yao joins this quest, then they’re places as the main close-combat DPS will most likely be affected. If a sword or battle axe drops then there’d be one more person to roll for it. Didn’t they say before that three big guilds were going to merge and that they needed a strong leader? Because of this, either Misty Clouds or Sword Reborn has to obtain the best drop and they must not let someone as strong as Guild Master become the main character!”

Dancing Forest raised her long bow and pursed her lips, “Then, we shouldn’t be a part of small tricks like this. Hmph, I didn’t think that Misty Clouds would be so defensive of our Little Zai Zai….”

The corners of my mouth twitched as I said, “Little Forest, you can’t say that. Misty Clouds motivation is pretty simple, it’s for the sake of creating a Guild Master worthy of the three guilds. When we’re playing games, doesn’t everyone want to become the ruler? Misty’s decision is something that any strong player ought to consider. Thus, we shouldn’t change anything because of me. You guys should go be a part of that quest, an SSS tier quest would give you at least 10 points of charm, and that’s a priceless reward. We’re already pretty lucky that 7 of our people are going in. [Zhan Long]’s getting a lot out of it too, 2000G of commission means 10,000 RMB, it isn’t bad at all!”

Qing Qian was puzzled, “Then…. Brother Xiao Yao, what will you be doing?”

I smiled, “Me? I’ll take Li Mu and Wang Jian and continue to guard the [Mass Burial] corpses. No matter what they do today, I will definitely stop them will all I have. Let the players of [Mass Burial] become completely helpless in Ba Huang City!”

“Alright!”